


Through A Glass, Darkly

by idrilhadhafang



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: 1drabble, Episode: s04e18 The End of Time (2), M/M, Multi, end of time spoilers, lottl spoilers, possible rusty writing skills
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-11-13
Updated: 2012-11-13
Packaged: 2017-11-18 14:43:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 673
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/562190
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idrilhadhafang/pseuds/idrilhadhafang
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A series of drabbles for 1drabble.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Who Will Save You, If Not Me?

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Because in the end, there's no one else who cares this much.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I own nothing.
> 
> Author's Notes: Written for the theme "weakness".

It’s then that the Master’s façade seems to drop and the Doctor sees, not the enemy that the Master had set himself up so perfectly to be, but a man. A man, still very much a child inside that mind, lashing out at the universe if only so it could feel his pain. A man that had been his equal – still was his equal, in fact, if not more – a man that had been his dearest friend, even standing with him against an enemy if needed...and here he was, dying.

It wouldn’t have seemed obvious on the outside, but he was. The hunger – even that hunger couldn’t sustain him forever. It was no doubt trying to work against the botched resurrection, trying to find a way to replenish the Master, but it wasn’t working. Even the Immortality Gate wouldn’t be able to keep the Master going for so very long. The Master was dying. No matter how much he tried to deny it, he was dying.

And even that thought is something that the Doctor can’t bear.

There are so many people that the Doctor tried and failed to save over the years. And the Master – the first time he died, at least in that incarnation, he had mostly died if only to get some sort of victory over the Doctor. 

And yet, even in that moment...

_“Will it stop, Doctor?” The Master looked at him, honest to Rassilon really looked at him, and the Doctor doubted he had seen him more vulnerable. “The drumming...will it stop?”_

And here he is. Standing before him, asking the same question: if the drumming will stop. In his eyes, fear, and yet also desperate hope.  _Make it stop, Doctor. The drumming, make it stop._

The Doctor looks back at him and says, “I can help.”

Perhaps he might not have been able to save his own race, or the others who died for him. But at least with the Master...at least he can do something right for a change. 


	2. For Me, For You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Master's thoughts as he saves the Doctor. Spoilers for "The End of Time" part two.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I own nothing.
> 
> Author's Notes: Decided to write in second person if only as a bit of an experiment. Hope I got the Master's voice right, at least. Written for the theme "victory".

When you tell the Doctor, plain and simply, to get out of the way, you’re not just doing this for him. And you’re not necessarily doing it for the sake of the human race or to save their worthless, ape-like skins – if anything, you’re doing this if only to dispense justice to Rassilon. This is the man who manipulated you your entire life. Everything that ever happened to you, every setback and humiliation and failure – everything had happened if only because of him. Because he was trying to save his own skin.

Because he couldn’t bear the idea of dying.

Not that you’re completely unsympathetic to the concept – after all, you’ve done multiple things in order to cheat death, after all. Your entire life – or lives, really – seems to have been built on cheating death. But the fact, the very idea, that you were no more than a pawn your entire life, a pawn in Rassilon’s game, along with the Doctor –

Rassilon hurt him as well. Your Doctor.

And so help everyone, nobody hurts your Doctor but you. You alone have that right. You’ve played this game with the Doctor so long that it’s become almost a way of life for you. For the both of you. And you’ve been unable to kill him if only because no matter how you try, there’s something in you that still remembers. That still, if anything else, loves him.

It’s what some of the more sentimental, human and otherwise, would have called a miracle. But if anything, for you, for the Master, it’s one more thing that you would do for the Doctor’s sake. For both your sakes, come to think of it.

And even as you use the remainder of your strength if only to blast him back into the Time War, there’s a part of you that can only acknowledge that, of all the things you’ve done in this lifetime, and in previous lifetimes – this has, in all honesty, been the best you’ve ever done. 


End file.
